A while ago I used to make recipes for an organic shop and coffee room here in town, De Bio Basis. This recipe was the second of a chain of recipes I made, only using their beautiful organic and fair trade products.It has been some years though, in which I also went vegan, so I rewrote this recipe a bit.

This recipe was made in spring '15. The winter made place for warmer days. The temperature increased and it almost felt like we were in Italy. (Okay, I will admit, Holland-kind-of-Italy..) Inspired by those relatively warm days and the Mediterranean courtyard from De Bio Basis, I made this recipe called 'Pasta Di Lena'.

INGREDIENTS:

Tagliatelle (most pastas are vegan)

Almonds (raw)

Fresh spinach

Red onion

Black olives

Sun dried tomatoes

Fresh Parsley

For the cashew-sour cream:

1 cup raw cashews, soaked overnight

¼ cup + 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

¼ tsp sea salt

1 tsp nutritional yeast

½ cup water

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DIRECTIONS:

Heat the oven to 180C. Cover a baking tin with a baking sheet, lay out the almonds and roast your almonds for 10 minutes in the oven.

Also in a large pan bring water to a boil for the tagliatelle and cook the pasta as directed on the package.

While waiting for the pasta and almonds the finish, you will have time to prepare the 'cashew sour cream': Place all ingredients into your blender. Blend on high for 5-7 minutes, scraping down the sides as needed, until very smooth and creamy. Transfer to a mason jar or other airtight container.

Cut the onion in rings and stir fry until golden brown. At the very last add your spinach and bake briefly, so it softens but will keep its freshness.

​In the meanwhile cut the olives and sun dried tomatoes into quarters and the freshly baked almonds in halves.

Now we're going to combine everything together: Firstly add some olive oil to the pasta so it won't stick. Then add the onion and spinach mix, the olives and sun dried tomatoes, the cashew sour cream, the almonds and top it off with some parsley leafs.